


Masterpiece

by Gh0stWithTheM0st



Category: Women's Soccer RPF
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-20
Updated: 2019-10-20
Packaged: 2020-12-24 13:10:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,072
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21099992
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gh0stWithTheM0st/pseuds/Gh0stWithTheM0st
Summary: She couldn’t help herself. It’s not like it was a diary, right? It was just going to be doodles or drawings. Kelley flipped through it not expecting to find anything interesting. Which was stupid because Kelley found everything Emily Sonnett did interesting.





	Masterpiece

**Author's Note:**

> Back with another little bite sized fic no one asked for! This came to me while going through some old artwork. Thought I'd put it down into writing for someone to stumble upon. It was fun to write so I hope it's fun to read. Enjoy!

It was mid-morning, 10:14 to be specific, Kelley noted as she checked her watch for the second time since arriving at the hole-in-the-wall coffee shop. Sonnett had sent her the address late last night, requesting an AM “coffee-not-date.” They decided on 10:00, allowing them each an extra hour or so of sleep (or in Kelley’s case, an hour or so to scroll on her phone in bed – restless being her default setting) but she knew it was foolish to expect Emily Sonnett to be on time. The sound of the bells on the door signaled an incoming customer, drawing Kelley’s attention from the crossword she had been diligently working on to an oh so familiar, flustered blonde. Her lips curled into a smile at the sight in front of her. Sonnett scanned the room, loose strands of hair escaped her signature bun hidden under a white cap. Kelley was tempted to pull the newspaper up to conceal herself, let Emily scour the shop to find her as revenge for making her wait for fourteen minutes. She decided against it, her eagerness to see Emily outweighed her childish antics. Once Sonnett’s eyes landed on Kelley she let out a visible sigh of relief and her scrunched up forehead seemed to relax, replaced by a soft smile. 

Kelley waved her over from across the room and pointed to the seat across from her, Emily’s order already waiting for her. A blueberry muffin with two forks sat between them as well.

“God, you’re too good to me,” Sonnett mumbled with a voice laced with sleep as she sipped her drink. Kelley’s eyes danced with amusement as she took in the girl across from her. 

They did this sometimes. Coffee. Especially when they were both going stir-crazy in the offseason and missing their teammates from their homes in Georgia. Sometimes during camp and sometimes when Emily was in Utah or Kelley was in Portland. No matter where they were, it usually went like this: one of them stealing the other away for one on one time, usually Emily finding a place with avocado toast she “HAS to try!” To Kelley, it’s all the same – she steals a bite each time and finds no difference, usually raising an eyebrow to her enthusiastic friend. She lets Emily continue the quest anyway in various cities over the years. They take turns paying. Kelley usually grabs a paper and does the crossword, a habit she’s had since college. Emily usually plays on her phone, helping Kelley occasionally with a pop-culture reference she would have never gotten. They talk and exchange pleasantries, but comfortable silence has become the norm for the two about twenty minutes in. To Kelley it was therapeutic, just being in the company of the younger girl. Talking or not, the positive energy coming off Sonny was palpable. She always left their “coffee-not-dates” in a better mood than she had come in with. Like she was some sort of crystal or essential oil Christen and Tobin swore emitted positive energy. That was Sonnett to her. Along with a few other things that she tried to push from the forefront of her brain.

To Sonnett, coffee on lazy mornings with Kelley became something she treasured. She would wake herself up on days she could’ve slept till noon to spend a couple hours sitting across from a certain freckled face. It was different in the mornings, softer. Actually, catching Kelley before she had her morning coffee was a sight to see. Kelley not going a million miles an hour was dazzling. Sure, Sonnett loved their shenanigans and their ability to riff off each other at any given moment, but Kelley sitting peacefully across from her wanting nothing but her company was special. They almost never let anyone get coffee with them. One time at the airport when the two thought they successfully snuck away from their gate, two of their teammates (cough,cough Sam and Rose) plopped down next to them and they shared a look of mutual disappointment in sharing their beloved, quiet morning time with the two others.

Emily offered a silly explanation as to why she was late, an obvious lie told to get a grin on her fellow defender’s face – 

“Kel, I swear, I must’ve hurt my foot in practice. I drove the entire way here with my left foot! It took twice as long. We need to get my right one checked out after this, okay?”

Kelley kicked her under the table twice. Emily’s foot playfully hit hers back. She then gently found Sonnett’s right foot with her own and instinctually rubbed the sole of her shoe against the girl across from hers. 

“I don’t know Son, looks like it’s in order to me,” she returned with a smirk as she pushed the muffin towards the younger girl.

The fell into their routine of quipping a few jokes toward each other, talking about their mutual friends, and the latest gossip on the next coach for the national team. 

Several minutes later Emily jolted up from her relaxed position opposite Kelley, who was enjoying her crossword in peace. 

“Not again, oh shit- Fuck! Hang on Kel-,” Sonnett blurted out quickly and a little loud for that matter as other patrons of the coffee shop followed the blonde out the door with their eyes.

Kelley could only barely make out the words coming out of Emily’s mouth as she made gestures to her car and what appeared to be a towing company, booting her front left tire. 

Sonnett would park illegally. This doesn’t shock Kelley in the slightest, what does though is what fell off Emily’s lap as she flew out the door. A book with a worn in beige cover sat on the ground by the table, two pencils rolled toward the legs of Kelley’s chair. Kelley retrieved Sonnett’s discarded items and found it to be a sketchbook and some pencils that weren’t the average ones used in math classes. These were nice ones, art ones. 

She rolled them over in her hands quizzically as her eyes fell to the book in front of her. Sonnett drew? She knew Sonnett doodled occasionally, she still has a little sketch of a cow on a napkin given to her by the blonde almost a year prior. It sat in between pages of whatever book she was reading and served as a bookmark, since she embarrassingly enough couldn’t throw it away. 

Kelley glanced behind her at the scene unfolding outside. Sonnett was arguing with the tow truck guy who looked at her unimpressed. She caught Kelley’s eyes through the glass and mouthed “Give me five,” as she made the number five with her left hand. Kelley nodded and looked back at the cover of Emily’s sketchbook. She ran her fingers over the worn material and thought it looked familiar. She might have seen a few of these by Emily’s bedside, maybe stacked under a picture frame? In the backpack she travelled with when scavenging for a charger to borrow? 

She couldn’t help herself. It’s not like it was a diary, right? It was just going to be doodles or drawings. Kelley flipped through it not expecting to find anything interesting. Which was stupid because Kelley found everything Emily Sonnett did interesting. 

Her heart pounded and her hands stilled once her eyes focused on the pages in front of her. The drawings were good, like really good. Some of familiar scenery – Portland cityscape, the Thorns pitch from the box’s point of view, what looked to be her backyard in Georgia. She flipped some more, Sonny’s twin sisters dog, a rough sketch of the Eiffel tower from France. Some of them were extremely detailed, some were just lines on paper that vaguely resembled anything at all. Still beautiful, Kelley thought as she traced the shapes Emily had drawn with her thumb.

She stilled once she saw one that made her jaw drop and her palms sweat. It was done at the beach and Kelley remembered everything about that day. There was still a little bit of sand between the pages in the crease. In front of her was her own back in a wetsuit only half pulled up as she walked towards the water, surfboard in tow. Sonnett stayed on the shore while Kelley surfed. Little did she know she was drawing Kelley as she prepared to face the waves. Sculpting her shoulders and back muscles perfectly. It was unmistakable, and if she even wanted to question it, the date was in the corner and it matched up with their time at the beach months earlier. Their day at the beach wasn’t just them two, half the team had gone too. But after, as they trekked back to the hotel, she may or may not have shared the best peach flavored ice cream cone with Sonny she’d ever taste. “Peach for the peaches.” She still remembered the dip in her stomach she felt the entire time as they passed the cone back and forth between them, fingers brushing as they shared. 

She flipped around some more, wanting to see what other moments Emily might have captured without her knowledge. 

This time Kelley felt her mouth go a little dry. This one was roughly drawn, not nearly as much detail as the beach scene but still unmistakable. It was from one of the long flights that they took together in France. Traveling with the team via plane was always interesting because bus buddy rules went out the window most of the time. She usually sat with Alex or occasionally Becky, if she let her. This time though the team was spread out since there was ample room for the long-haul flight. Sonnett shuffled towards her, pillow and blanket in hand, and motioned for her to move her feet, which were extended across the otherwise empty row. “Sonny, I want to stretch out, no way are yo-,” she started in a hushed voice, as the rest of the team was sleeping. A rare moment of peace and silence, likely brought on by most of them being in their heads about the upcoming World Cup games. “I know, Lindsey’s doing the same thing but your legs are lighter, scooch.” Kelley obliged and was glad she did so. She was more comfortable than before and quickly fell asleep with her head against the window, not noticing Emily flick the overhead reading light on. It was the best nap of her life, legs on top of Emily’s lap with her blanket covering them both. When she woke up Emily was asleep this time, her mouth slightly open and her right arm twitching where they covered Kelley’s legs. 

The picture in front of her showed her messy bun peeking out of her hoodie, head pressed up to the airplane window. The mess of blankets between both of them. Emily had dotted the visible half of her face with what she assumed to be her view of the millions of freckles she had. She’d drawn a little cartoonish thought bubble above Kelley’s head and filled it with the word “beer” in neat capital letters. The rest of the page was littered with the letter ‘Z’, indicative that her subject was fast asleep. Kelley’s eyes scanned the page in wonder, seriously how did she not know Sonnett had been drawing her, apparently multiple times? She felt her heart swell with pride that she hadn’t seen one other human in this sketch book. Landscapes, doodles, yes. People? No one but Kelley so far. 

She flipped to the most recent page and did a double take as the date scrawled in the corner was todays. It wasn’t much, but she could make out her own frame. Emily had drawn the crossword and coffee cups in front of her, the half-eaten muffin. She hadn’t yet filled in Kelley’s face, but she had been working on the waves of her hair. How could she not have noticed? Was she really THAT engrossed in her crossword? Apparently so. Sonnett seriously had been looking at her closely enough to capture the way her sleeves were rolled, the chip in the nail polish of her index finger, as it wrapped around her pen. Was she always this observant? 

Kelley’s mind started to spiral and she felt like she had a fever. She slapped the sketch book closed and placed it neatly on the table alongside the two pencils. 

As if on cue, the artist herself sauntered back into the shop. She took her original seat and happily stated she got off with a warning. She launched into an explanation as to why her car was parked illegally, swearing she was just too eager to see Kelley to park properly. 

Finally, Emily noticed that Kelley hadn’t responded and continued to look at her with a dazed expression on her face. She quickly touched her own face, seeing if there had been food on it and that was the reason Kelley stared in awe at her. Sonnett took in her surroundings and saw her sketchbook right smack dab in front of her. A blush rose to cheeks, Kelley had to have seen what she was drawing. There was a reason she kept it in her lap, off the table as she drew. Kelley had always just thought she was on her phone under the table, but she’d been drawing all the time. Honestly, it was just a matter of time. 

“When were you going to tell me I’m your muse?” Kelley said with a teasing tone and bright eyes. 

“Ugh, no, it’s just. You just happened to be sitting there…I draw what’s in front of me!” Emily said with a shoulder shrug as if that was a valid explanation. She should’ve known Kelley would never accept that answer.

Kelley rose an eyebrow and went back and forth in her head whether or not she should press. The last thing she wanted was to embarrass Emily or have her toss out the drawings.

“Let me know next time, maybe you could paint me like one of those French girls huh? Do you paint, too? I could pose and everythi-,” Kelley began as the blush on Emily’s face spread to her neck and gathered above her clavicle.

“KELLEY! No! Definitely not, I-” And it went like this for a couple minutes. Interrupting each other, Kelley teasing Emily mercilessly, Emily finally slumping back into the chair looking defeated. 

“You know I’m kidding right, Em.” Kelley said with a soft voice. She reached a warm hand to touch the sleeve of the blondes sweatshirt. “I think it’s great. I think you’re great. You should keep doing this, like it’s beautiful. All of it, not just me.”

Emily finally met her eyes and saw she was telling the truth. Kelley looked flattered to be the focus of Emily’s artistic inclinations, proud even. It was just a habit, a hobby, an outlet. She didn’t tell many people about it because she wanted to keep it to herself, kind of like how she wanted to keep her mornings with Kelley to herself.

Emily was at a loss for words and Kelley could see that so she filled the silence.

“Hey, so I know a place. You’d like it. I promise. Can I take you there tonight?” asked Kelley, sounding a little more insecure than normal but also a bit excited.

Emily nodded slowly and noticed Kelley hadn’t let go of her sleeve and their feet were touching under the table again.

X

Kelley took her to a quaint gallery hidden between an old bookstore and a local bar on a street tucked away into Atlanta. Emily never noticed it before, she wonders how Kelley knew about it.

“You know, just because you know I draw now, doesn’t mean it’s special. It’s not the only thing about me, it’s not the only thing I like. You don’t have to like, bring me to galleries or art museums every chance you get,” said Emily a little bit too defensively. To be honest, she just felt weird being in the spotlight Kelley put her in. Vulnerable. The older defender had brought her here on purpose, because she knew she liked art now. Because she found the drawings Emily did of her. It was all too much for Emily to process right now, that Kelley O’Hara wanted to go out of her way to look into one of her interests that wasn’t soccer. 

“I know. There’s a lot I still want to know, Em. I just thought you’d like it..,” Kelley trailed and began looking around self-consciously. Maybe she crossed a line, maybe she should have let it go in the shop. Pretend like she never saw the sketches. 

Emily immediately felt horrible and backtracked, “I do! Kel, I do, I’m sorry. Let’s just go in okay?” she motioned to the walls. God this place was beautiful. Exposed brick, gorgeous pieces lined the wall, soft slow music trailed in from the bar next door who put on live music every Saturday. More beautiful though was the woman standing in front of her, whose smile slowly returned to her face.

Emily boldly took Kelley’s hand and started leading her around the room, there were only a few other people in there but they still spoke in hushed tones. They took turns commenting on the images in front of them and Kelley thought she could do this forever. Wander around galleries and art exhibits with Emily’s hand in hers, watching her eyes light up at certain pieces and her brow furrow at others she didn’t quite get. Her thoughts immediately took her back to France, that she didn’t have a chance to see The Louvre. She stores this piece of information and makes a mental note to bring Em there one day, soon.

The next time Emily draws Kelley is when she’s fast asleep, naked in her bed. She captures the sunlight peeking in through the curtains, forming patterns on her face. The curves of her body, the gentle features of her face when she’s still dreaming. The infinite amount of freckles and the wave in her hair. The way her hand is slightly curled, displayed across the pillow in search of Emily even in her sleep.

Emily looks at her sketchbook and then back to the girl fast asleep in her bed. She sighs, “What a masterpiece.”


End file.
